Wishing all Americans a joyous and safe Fourth of July! I wish I were there celebrating with you!

Have you ever made a selfish gift? I mean, something you know the recipient will like but also something that deep-down, you’d gladly receive, too? That’s what I was busy with last month, LOL. The Plum Street Designs freebie I stitched for Cathi is something I fully intend to stitch for myself. And the Five Birds (an old freebie from Kathy Barrick-Dieter) pincushion I stitched for Anna falls into the same category. I matched some HDF silks to the called-for DMC and stitched it on a piece of 35 ct HDF linen. It’s stuffed with wool rovings to keep her needles sharp & clean.

I stitched this some time ago for an exchange, as well, but that time I just used whatever colors struck my fancy. I finished it as a mattress-style pincushion that time – a finish that I really like, but find awfully fiddly. (The photo’s not the greatest quality, sorry.)

My limited stitching time has been seriously curtailed by the very sticky weather we’ve had. Today was 34 (that’s a bit over 93 F!) and I think I might be melting. But when Annemarie arrived today, we did manage to fit in a little bit of stitching as well as a great lot of chatting. I subjected her to some of my homemade ravioli and foccaccia bread, which she survived. It was great to see her and I hope to make the trek over to her neck of the woods in the near future.

Here’s hoping that whatever the weather where you are, that you’re sitting pretty!

Not only do a have the winners from my blog giveaway to announce, but I also have the details for another fabulous giveaway at Prim Originals to share.

First off, Prim Originals is having a giveaway and I really hope I win! So I probably shouldn’t tell you about it, right? Fewer names = greater chance of me winning? Nah, that wouldn’t be playing fair. Liz is a talented artist and to prove it, I have two of her prints hanging in our living room on my “art wall”. Okay, it’s really only a half wall, but it will grow…. My embarrassing admission is that one of these prints was purchased as a gift, but I liked it so much that I kept it. (Don’t worry, the intended recipient never knew what happened and got a different gift that made her just as happy!)

On to my giveaway, I was surprised at how fast the comments poured in – and very touched by all the nice things you said! Thank you! I printed out the first 40-odd names at  midnight when I was getting ready to go to bed, and printed the rest out today. Snip, snip, and into the hat so everyone had a chance to pull a name. Without further ado, here are the five winners:

Congratulations, and once again, thank you so much for your friendship and encouragement!

Today’s adventure was heading over to the doggie hotel where Rigby and Lola will be staying during our time in Maine. I wanted to see it for myself and also to give Lola a chance to experience it before getting “dumped” there for three weeks. Lola’s a bit of a scaredy-cat and I thought it would be less frightening for her if she could see it beforehand. Ideally, I’d prefer to bring both dogs but I can’t handle both of them and all four kids in a new setting on my own. Visits to the kennel are only permitted during certain hours to reduce stress for the dogs who are already staying there; Niek would’ve been glad to help, but of course visiting hours occur during the workday. But we managed fine and I’m feeling better about the necessity of leaving our dogs behind.

Other recent adventures have involved ice cream. It’s been hot-hot-hot, and that means cool treats. Arden is a huge fan of popsicles and since we are all huge fans of Arden, I thought these pictures would bring a few smiles.

And there have been some cooking adventures as I experiment with some gluten-free products – I want to show my mom how easy it is to live gluten-free (so she’ll stick to her doctor-recommended diet), and that means experimenting on my family beforehand. Ha ha. I’ve learned that soy flour cannot replace regular flour, but only enhance it (to add extra protein/moisture/etc.). I should’ve read about soy flour before attempting this soy-flour foccaccia bread. As you can see, it was a resounding failure. Fortunately, I baked a “normal” one at the same time so we did not go hungry. LOL!

Tomorrow’s adventure will be having Annemarie over for a visit. Actually, she’ll be the one having an adventure, as both dogs are shedding like mad at the moment and even twice-daily vaccuuming doesn’t keep up with the furballs and dirt that’s constantly getting tracked in. Chateau Chaos looks much more chaotic than usual these days, but Annemarie’s a brave woman. I can hardly wait to see her!

Wishing you well! Thank you once again for visiting with me here – I certainly enjoy the company!

13:05  1 July, Edited to add:

Drawing closed to choose winners who will be announced later today!

2005 till 2009 makes four years of blogging, as of today. The time really does fly when you’re having fun! Thank you to my cherished, long-standing friends who’ve been with me from the start (or nearly so) and to all the wonderful people I’ve met in the years since then. You’re the best!

I’ll randomly choose five people who comment on today’s post to send a gift – it may be a chart from your wishlist, or a cut of fabric, or maybe some floss you’ve mentioned wanting to try, or … well, whatever strikes my fancy! It’s just a small token of my enormous appreciation for your readership and friendship!

In the spirit of supporting blogs, here’s a new-to-me blog that I don’t know how I ever overlooked. What talent! Happy blogging, everyone!

Yesterday afternoon we were able to take the kids and dogs for a walk in the nearby community “forest” (okay, I’m from Maine and I just cannot call this a forest without cracking a grin). When we left the house, it was overcast and that helped a lot with the humidity, but while we were there the sun came out and it was sort of like a huge sauna. Hot stuff, baby. Anyway, in an ongoing attempt to figure out how to use my new camera better, I decided to take pictures only of special tiny things that came along during our walk. A sampling of tiny treasures.

On the stitching front, HOHRH has been put away for a couple of weeks so I can concentrate on some deadline stitching. Today I worked on our Quaker RR. Fingers crossed I won’t have the miscounting problems that I did with the last round! Dear friend Cathi let me know that her Independence Day gift has arrived – when I saw this freebie, I immediately thought of Cathi. I’m so glad she likes it. I’ve used HDF silks (the Be-series) on 35 ct HDF Bunny Brown linen. It’s backed with Moda fabrics and stuffed with wool rovings to make a humble pincushion. I just love how it came out and fully intend to stitch it again for myself … next year!

I hope your day is full of beauty, big or small!

I woke up this morning and decided I really had to tend to my bloglines reader which was nearing 200 unread posts – nothing to some of you maybe, but I try to keep caught up every day and it was freaking me out (I’ve been offline more often than not since Thursday). So I’ve gone through all your wonderful new posts – not commenting on every single one, as I once would’ve done, but enjoying them and leaving comments here and there. What a talented bunch of stitchers, quilters, and crafters you are! I also sent out another batch of emails with the Brite Birds freebie and I hope that I’m caught up on requests for that. Someone asked why Kathy might refuse permission to distribute her freebie this way … well, believe it or not, some designers have caused a huge ruckus over things like this (no names named, but I bet some of you know to whom I’m referring!) and I didn’t want to even risk offending Kathy so I asked first. And I wasn’t at all surprised by her gracious answer. Who else out there thinks she should make a volume of her freebies for sale? I’d buy it.

It’s been very steamy here, which has seriously cut into my stitching. Before bed last night, I did put a few stitches into HOHRH, and here’s my rather embarassing update on that.

Instead of stitching yesterday, I cooked. Insane, isn’t it? I mean, it was so hot and humid … so I go off and make lasagne from scratch. And when I say from scratch, I mean it – even the pasta (spinach!) is homemade. It was incredibly good. And there’s enough pasta left over for tonight’s dinner!

Sorry for the dreadful photos – the new camera and I are having a slow learning period with each other.

Wishing you a wonderful Sunday!

I did not stitch at all yesterday, nor did I so much as turn on my computer. Shocking, isn’t it? Yesterday, the kids (and Niek) had the end-of-year Scouting festivities (an overnighting at the Scouting headquarters!) which culminated this morning in the swearing-in of the newest Scouts. At home, I lazed about re-reading some of my absolute favorite kids’ books by Madeleine L’Engle and not cooking. LOL! There are no HOHRH photo updates, but here’s one of Holland’s newest Scouts being sworn in (and being hugely admired by her baby brother).

I did put a few strands of silk into my ES Spot Sampler the other day (perhaps explaining some of my very slow HOHRH progress), so here’s that.

Brite Birds freebie

Kathy Barrick-Dieter has given her blessing regarding distribution of her Brite Birds freebie (shown in my last post, as stitched by Conny for my birthday). If you are interested in a copy, please leave a comment here and I’ll email you one tomorrow. I need to scan my copy first.

It’s incredibly humid here, making stitching a bit uncomfortable (I always think my hands are dirty) so I’ll probably keep myself busy in other ways. Wishing everyone a good weekend full of the special joys that make life wonderful.

I haven’t stitched on 28 count linen in quite awhile, unless it’s over-one, so when I picked HOHRH up the other day to join in with Becky’s initiative, I felt like I was stitching on window screening material. LOL. This is stitched on 28 ct Parkside by Silkweaver using the suggested DMC. I’ve been thinking that after I do house one on this one, I’ll go on to do house one on VOHRH and then SOHRH. Then on to house two, and so on. It sounded like an interesting way to get all three BAPs done without getting bogged down on one of them.

Day One:

Day Two:

Here’s the stash that Conny gave me for my birthday. Gorgeous, huh? Makes me long for autumn!

And my Liberty Primitives order came in today. Wow, she packaged it up so  nicely, with some gorgeous freebies. What a treat!

We had some fun at lunch today. Here are Arden and Rowen being very cute.

It’s a gorgeous sunny day here – hot and bright and very summery. I hope you’re enjoying a wonderful day!

You know how some foods just make you feel good – a friend of mine was wild for Welsh Rarebit when I was younger and that totally freaked me out till I found out it’s just cheese sauce over bread. LOL. I’m very fond of mac & cheese if my Mom or Sara is making it. If I have to do my own comfort cooking, I’d have to say that homemade pasta fills the bill. Last night I made a double recipe of pasta (=1 kilo of raw pasta dough) and used that to make 90 mouth-watering ravioli. It took me most of the afternoon, but it really was worth it.

On a food note, awhile ago Dianne asked me about roasted bell peppers (I believe we were having gazpacho, or maybe I was using the roasted peppers in another soup). It’s a simple thing – just cut your bell peppers into large chunks, put them skin-side up under your broiler, and … well, burn them. Once they cool off, peel the burnt skin off and use the pepper how you want. T’hey’re excellent cut into strips and used in salads & pasta, or puree them for use in a soup. Yum. I don’t like bell peppers very much unless they’re roasted.

Not to make too clumsy of a segue, but spending time with certain friends can be immensely comforting, too. Arden I were happy to spend the morning and early afternoon with Conny at her home. As is always the case, actual stitching never actually got done, but we had a wonderful time talking, showing each other projects, eating, and laughing. Because we’d both had a birthday since the last time we saw each other, some gift-giving was called for. I could finally give this little Marjorie Massey project to its real owner.

And Conny thrilled me to bits with this Brite Birds (an older freebie from Kathy Barrick-Dieter) project – how clever is she? This is so gorgeous! It’s hanging by my front door for all to see and admire. She also gave me a bag full of gorgeous floss, ribbon, and finishing fabric that I’ve neglected to photograph (shame on me!) as well as a fun game for the kids that she bought in China. Thank you for a great day, Conny!

Hoping that your day is graced by true friendship!

What a nice weekend! I hope yours was, too! I did indeed finish the stitching on the third gift and, if all goes well, the finish-finishing will be done by the time my head hits the pillow tonight. I’ve managed to pull all the coordinating fabrics, etc. so it’s “just” a matter of assembly. LOL. If only you could see me when I’m putting things together … you’d laugh yourself silly.

While I was stitching, Ash was busy putting a lot of irresistible goodies up on eBay. One of the most talented all-around crafters I’ve ever met – I mean, everything Ash did was drop-dead gorgeous – she’s out of crafts and is clearing out all her remaining stash. You really have to go look. And drool! (And bid, LOL!)

We enjoyed a very laid-back Father’s Day here at Chateau Chaos. No pictures, I’m sorry, though I was tempted to post one of Niek in his special red & white striped apron. He insisted on cooking dinner even though he should’ve had the day off.

While the kids were out playing, I picked up Blessed Be by Stacy Nash. It’s been a long time since this one has seen the light of day. The linen, 40 ct Dark Chino R&R, is very challenging to stitch on and that’s probably why it got shoved to the back of the drawer. But it really is the perfect linen for this project, so I’ll soldier on. Believe it or not, I did the face three times before I was remotely satisfied with it (and even now, I’m not sure …). I’m doing this using my own choice of flosses.

I also picked up Eleanor Spooner’s Spot Sampler, one of my own designs, and put in a few more stitches on this one. I love this project, but because I started it just for myself, it was continually pushed back to make time for other stitching obligations. Since I’ve recently made contact with Eleanor’s youngest daughter, however, I’ve decided to stitch and frame it for her. And now my procrastination is due to worries that my work won’t be good enough. Sigh … I’m my own worst enemy! (Please overlook the creases & wrinkles – because I’m doing this in non-colorfast silks, I’m waiting till the very end to iron it.)

For the next couple of days, I’ll be stitching a quilt square for the breast cancer group. The lady receiving this quilt is an avid horse rider, so I’ve combed through all my old magazines and found some horse-related designs that I’m combining to create her square. I just started it this morning and the first part of the design is from Cross Stitch & Needlework June 1997.

Wishing one and all a most lovely week, full of sunshine and good health!